Little Things Like That
by Dara Tavar
Summary: Gates claims to hate Castle, to despise him with every fiber of her being...but is that the truth? Perhaps Gates' feelings for Castle aren't really what she's let on that they are. Could Gates feel something other than distaste for the writer who has wormed his way into her precinct? One-shot. R&R please!


**Okay, first Castle story here. I've been watching it a lot with my mom and sister recently-sister got season 4 for Christmas, so we've been watching that. Now I just need to watch season 5, catch myself up on it (I watched the first couple episodes, but then school kind of got in the way and I didn't get to watch most of it).  
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**Anyways, I always wondered about Gates' feelings for Castle and while watching an episode the other night I got the idea for this story. Wrote it out today and now I'm uploading it (obviously, lol). Its a short one-shot, doesn't have any talking and is really just an insight to Gates' thoughts/feelings. Well, nothing else to say other than please leave a review. Enjoy!  
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**DT  
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**Little Things Like That**

Captain Victoria Gates entered her office, turning to stare out the window to where her four favorite detectives stood together—and Castle.

When she'd first met the writer, she'd despised him instantly. The way he'd used his connections to get what he wanted and acted like he was God's gift to mankind—not to mention the things she'd learned about him—all added together in the most annoying way possible. She'd thought of him as a pompous know-it-all who got what he wanted no matter what anyone said. And the way he'd used his connections with the Mayor to force her into allowing to come back and work with Beckett hadn't won him any points with her.

Little things like that were what had fueled her hatred for him.

Of course, she knew he didn't truly deserve her feelings for him, but that didn't change how she felt. It wasn't his fault that he reminded her of her ex-husband, a man who had made her life a living hell in as many ways as he could. The man had been a pompous know-it-all too, someone who had used whatever he could to get his way and didn't care who he'd stepped on in the process. But she'd loved him, and so had hoped to change him—but even that hadn't kept her with him on the day he'd finally hit her. That had been the final straw.

She forced the old memories away, not wanting to drown herself in them. She'd spent enough of her time doing that in the past, and she wasn't willing to let herself slip into that dark pit any more.

Gates studied Castle for several minutes in silence, listening to the muffled sound of their voices. When Castle made a joke or told a story, something, the detectives laughed and smiled at him in a way that they never did around her. She was an outsider, even though she had more in common with the detectives than Castle did—showing that he was an insider even in a crowd much different than he usually surrounded himself with.

And that, his way of making people like him even if they didn't want to, was what started to change her mind about him—because that didn't remind her of her ex-husband, a man who'd made people hate him with his antics, but instead of the younger brother she loved so much.

Little things like that helped to build up her affection for him.

Looking to the photograph on her desk, she smiled a little at the face of her baby brother, reaching out to gentle touch his cheek. The glass was cool against her fingertips, reminding her that his cheeks no longer held the warmth they'd had so long ago. Losing him had been tough, one of the hardest things she'd ever experienced—and perhaps that was the reason Castle had somehow wormed his way under her skin.

Despite the way she acted towards the writer, she couldn't deny the fact that she had come to care for him. With his goofy grin and child-like (albeit morbid at times) imagination, he reminded her more of Victor every day. But she couldn't let him know that she actually liked him, so she continued to act as though she despised him and would kick him out of her precinct the very first chance that she got. But in all reality, she would never do such a thing.

Castle might not be a cop, but he worked hard on the cases and was normally helpful to Beckett and the others, offering an insight that they didn't have. Not to mention the detectives seemed to be in a better mood when he was around. At least then they seemed to smile and laugh more.

And he'd been trying so hard recently to get her to like him. Going out of his way to do things he knew she would like, such as giving her the doll she needed for her collection—of course, he'd gone on to break one of her own and then the one that he'd given her, but at least he'd tried. And he'd continued on after that, trying to make up for the mistake and get on her good side.

She had to admit, the man didn't give up when he set his mind to something.

Looking back out to them, her eyes caught on Castle and Beckett. They shared smiles that the other detectives didn't notice, telling her that something more was going on than they allowed everyone to know about—something that they were keeping secret.

Gates couldn't help the way her lips twitched into a smile at the thought of the two finally getting together. She'd been aware of their feelings for quite some time and had only been waiting for them to finally give in. It seemed that the time had come and they'd succumbed to their emotions.

Well good. Maybe now the tension that thickened the air would go away and the two of them would finally be able to stop fighting so much.

Castle happened to glance over at her just then, and Gates quickly replaced her smile with an irritated look, but she knew he'd caught it by the wide grin that covered his face. She turned her back on him and allowed her smile to return, shaking her head as she moved around her desk and sat down in the chair to begin working once more.

After a few minutes had passed, Gates glanced back out the window. The four were now gathered around the white board, apparently on to talking about their current case finally. When they began gathering their things together, she didn't hide the fact that her attention was on them—after all, there was a policy stating that they needed to tell her where they were going before they left. She didn't want to go through everything all over again when Castle and Beckett had gone missing.

It was Ryan who seemed to draw the short stick, moving to her door and poking his head in to quickly tell her where they were headed before moving back across the room to where the others waited by the elevator doors.

Just before he stepped through, Castle glanced back at her and smiled. She expected a wave from him, maybe something else to try and win her over, but nothing else came. His smile was small but genuine, not one of his charming smiles that did nothing to her. But this one, this real smile, won her over more than any of those charming ones he'd given her from the beginning.

Gates allowed a small smile to touch her own lips, allowed him to see it for only a moment before wiping it away. She didn't want the others to see it—but he had. It was her only sigh that she might like him more than she let on, but it was the little things like that which would keep their relationship interesting.


End file.
